thank you, john thornton for your exceptional china program. thank you to colleagues for organizing this wonderful day of activities. whatever this may -- whatever this event may have been called, it is above all a celebration of he weifang. he is brilliant, he is learned, he is courageous. he is a tenacious person with the soul of a saint in fighting justice, fighting for justice. he is a soul of wit who somehow convinces us that fighting for fundamental change in china is a joyful activity. [laughter] the tweet andd by sparks of with the flow from him as readily as sparks flow from an iron factory. as china watchers know, to forge iron, one must be strong. he weifang is strong. the panel has been asked under a title to do not exactly remember to talk about the prospects at changes and challenges of legal reform in china. i am certainly honor to share the stage with such distinguished colleagues as bill alfred and jerome cohen. none of us know for sure what the prospects are for the rule of law in china. partly that depends on the time frame.